Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
On this date …
1931: Hotel Clovis opened, instantly becoming the nine-story center of the city’s social activity.
It had 114 guest rooms, each containing a telephone, bathroom and hot/cold running water.
The hotel employed 55 people when it opened. It laid off 25 when it closed in 1983.
1940: A Curry County deputy sheriff was in Clovis Memorial Hospital after suffering a shattered kneecap in a fight.
The Clovis News-Journal reported Val Baumgart was attempting to arrest a Floydada, Texas, man downtown when he was kicked in the knee by a boot heel.
The newspaper did not report the reason Baumgart was trying to make an arrest.
1951: The city of Portales was working on the “Ouster of outhouses,” according to The Portales Tribune.
Jerry Hein, the city’s sanitarian, was making a list of all the outhouses in the city limits in hopes of having them removed.
“A person would expect a lot of these instances of unsanitary toilet facilities to be hardship cases, but it just isn’t that way,” Hein said.
“Most of the cases will deal with people who own low-rent houses and just don’t want to put the plumbing in.”
The city’s plan was to “accept bids from plumbing companies to either build privies or modernize these houses,” the newspaper reported. “The low bid would be accepted and the cost of the plumbing would be assessed against the houses in question.”
Once the list was completed and bids accepted, the “city dads” would provide the information to the city attorney for “proper handling,” the paper reported.
1970: Eastern New Mexico University officials received 1,114 signatures of Clovis residents protesting the upcoming appearance of Dr. Benjamin Spock.
Spock was a purported baby expert, but his political leanings — he opposed the U.S. draft and foreign policy — made him a lightning rod for critics.
Clovis’ Mac Eichenberger presented the petitions, announcing “this is a peaceful form of protest,” the Clovis News-Journal reported.
1971: Clovis police had acquired a new van it dubbed a “paddy wagon.”
The van was purchased with city funds matching a federal grant.
Police Chief Ken Kingsbury said the wagon gave police “the potential of mass arrests.”
1972: Perennial Portales coffee shop Les' Sweet Shoppe had an ad in the Portales News-Tribune touting, "Our coffee is always fresh and still just 10 cents."
The ad also encouraged potential customers to "Try our delicious fried pies," and reminded them that, "There is nothing that hits the spot like our homemade chili on these cold days."
The shop slogan was "Where the elite meet to eat sweets!"
1979: The 31-year-old Yucca Drive-In movie theater on South Prince Street in Clovis had been torn down the day before.
The Clovis News-Journal reported the drive-in was built in 1948.
“Remember those great summer nights?” the photo caption read.
“It was first dates, popcorn and soft drinks, ’53 Mercs with skirts, horn-honking and a host of other youthful memories.”
1987: A leaky water pipe flooded much of the north half of the Curry County Courthouse, causing an undetermined amount of damage and promising to have computers shut down for at least a week.
Philip Jackson, a county corrections officer who had been making a routine sweep of the building around 1 a.m., was credited with helping staunch the flow.
Jail Administrator Terri Emond said Jackson forced open a window and crawled through, dropping into water that was flowing over electrical lines and junction boxes to turn off the valve.
"It's a wonder he wasn't badly injured or even killed," Emond said. "If it hadn't been for him, the damage probably would have been 100 times worse."
Pages Past is compiled by David Stevens and Betty Williamson. Contact:
